The wilderness will kill you if you give her half a chance.

Respect the desert, and stay hydrated.

an hour in 115 heat is really crappy, but I suspect bad health played a large role. Dogs in cars die in 120 degree heat after an hour, but they cannot sweat.

why did he wait an hour before contacting the rangers?

400 yards from where the bus stopped. About a quarter mile. When you are dehydrated it's bad for brain function.

(edit spelling...)

to become disoriented.

I'll wait and see if there is more reported on this; it seems odd that a tour bus driver would wait so long when he gave them a 10 minute window. Perhaps the other passengers were looking for the guy during that period . . .

I was working on a commercial in Death Valley during August.

We had the pleasure of working during one of the hottest times ever recorded. It had reached 126 degrees!

Anyway, we would work from 6am to 10am. Take a break then get back at it at 4pm.

We would go back to the Furnace Creek hotal and hang out.

While there, there were a number of tourists from Europe wondering around in the blazing heat.

These people were lily white. And we gently told them to be very careful otherwise they could 1) get a wicked sunburn 2) get heat stroke and 3) die.

They sort of smiled and nodded then said, "we don't experience this kind of heat in Europe so we are trying to get every chance we can to be out in it".

Me and my buddy just looked at them blankly, shook our heads and wished them a nice day.

You can lead a horse to sunscreen but you can't make it put it on.

Long sleeved light colored shirt, long light colored pants, light colored socks, broad rimmed hat and a neck scarf. Put the sunscreen on the backs of your hands and on your exposed face. And then drink plenty of water, replace electrolytes and keep physical exertion to a minimum in the middle of the day. Heat exhaustion/heat stroke is no joke. I had a touch of it working on a roof when I was about 21 and it was nowhere near those kind of conditions. Made a believer out of me.

It was a life-threatening situation, and we took it very seriously.

It worked, but it was a little scary for a few minutes when I was actually having chills, not sweating, and had a helluva headache.

He'd been hospitalized for an earlier injury and had been sent back to the field too soon. Humping up and down the mountainous terrain in full combat gear in extreme heat with little sleep was too much for him in his condition.

We bumped into each other 20 years later and joked about it. I'd been on my last legs myself and was nearly to the top of the hill we had to reach when I got the radio call that I had a man down. We'd busted our humps all day to reach that hill on time, and when I was almost to the top I had to go back down to Medevac the guy--and then climb the hill all over again. When we finally met again he seemed relieved when I told him it wasn't his fault.

but, as I like to say, people are stupid.

Isn't that at the peak of the heat?

Whomever was travelling with this Frenchman dropped the ball.